Awakening Tapas

Begin gently shaking the body, letting awareness drop inside. Bring awareness into your feet, knees, and pelvis, arms, chest, shoulders, and head. Relax your face, jaws, and knees, sinking deeper down into the pull of gravity. Bend your knees, allowing an intensity in your thighs, into this downward movement. Bring the breath into the heat, the intensity, dropping below the surface of your experience into the energy behind the sensations. Keep relaxing, opening the pelvic floor, and sinking down.

As the intensity increases in the thighs, the heat that is created is Durga’s Tapas, a deeper power. Breathe deeply, opening into this energy, allowing any sounds to come. Keep sinking deeper, dropping down into the pelvis, melting frozen energy or tension, integrating it into your sense of self, your aliveness. All this power, all this energy is available to you, always.

After you feel complete, slowly straighten the legs, shaking them a little, and allow the body to come to stillness. Place one hand on your lower belly and one on your heart, swaying gently as if your body was standing in water.

Close your eyes and let all your awareness rest in the womb (even if the physical organ is not there, concentrate on the womb area in the pelvis). Imagine that your womb is like a magnet pulling, gathering all the energy in your body. Feel the intensity as it is compressing itself into a tiny seed of light—the bindu—throbbing with all this power. Keep breathing and integrating.